Misfit Librarian

Since the last of the Harry Potter movies has come and gone, there has to be a new “fix” for all the Potterheads out there, and well, JK Rowling has a new surprise in store for us – Pottermore! Pottermore is an interactive website that will allow users to download the ebooks of Harry Potter for the first time as well as read unpublished information about characters. Pottermore is open for beta testing and should you be one of the lucky few, you will be able to beta test the site before it becomes public in October of 2011.

To sign up, you must visit Pottermore during their secretive times for 7 days, find the quill, and answer the question based upon the  7 books, you have 7 chances. So far, the first day was 7/31/11, on Harry’s birthday and it opened at 3:45 am EST. The next day it was 5am, followed by 6am the 3rd day. So, my best guess would be the forth day would be at 7am and so forth, by adding an hour to each day from the day before.

Each day, the questions to answer are based book the days coincide. So, day 1 was Sorcerer’s Stone, day 2 Chamber of Secrets, day 3 the Prisoner of Azkaban, day 4 Goblet of Fire, day 5 the Order of the Phoenix, day 6 the Half-blood Prince, and day 7 the Deathly Hollows. If you feel so inclined to not look into the books for the answers, well, there is always the internet .

I got in the 2nd day, The Chamber of Secrets. My username is MidnightRiver69 and i’m not so sure I like it, lol. They assign you names so that everyone of all ages can enjoy the experience. Though with a 69 at the end of my name, I’m unsure that is rated G, hah! Anywho, here is a picture of what I see so far as I haven’t received my secondary email saying that I am in the wave of beta testers allowed to go in just yet.

Pottermore - You're in!YAY! - click to see larger image

So as you can see from the print screen that they are doing the beta testing in waves and even if you do get in during the beta testing 7 day sign up period, it doesn’t mean you’ll get in until September. But if after all that, you still want to get in, keep an eye out on Twitter, Tumblr, and SnitchSeeker.com for updates.

Take care,

~ML

Malaprops online Bookstore for all your Harry Potter needs!

I wanted to post something near and dear to my heart. I’ve noticed on Facebook that more and more kill shelters are posting available animals for adoption. It is really saddening to see how little time these poor creatures have. We as human beings need to be more responsible! Not enough is done to make sure these animals find their perfect furever home. Animals appear to be things we can just throw away. A lot of the blame goes to the current environment, but kill shelters didn’t spring up overnight. I’ve know people who buy a dog or a cat and once they get tired, fed up, or the animal just didn’t match their most current handbag, end up just dumping them off instead of finding a home for them. Then the animal pays with his life. Even in this environment, we as human beings need to responsible for those we take into our homes. For example, I got laid off in December (right before Christmas), and I still made ends meet to take care of myself and my animal family.
I say this constantly and can’t say it enough, the government makes arrangements for child molesters, murderers, abusers, to lounge around for fifteen to life, getting an education, meals and what seems like another chance at life while these government agencies give kill shelters, literally days to have animals adopted or they are put to death. It’s disgusting!

So, in closing, if you can’t take responsibility for your animals, try and find a NO KILL shelter or a foster family. If your looking to adopt, check out county kill shelters first as these animals have little to no time before they are put to sleep.

Take Care,

~ML

Hey Everyone! I just got done with this semester of classes and I wanted to relax for bit before getting to this blog full time. So to relax, I started looking for something quick to read and The Peach Keeper found me! I mean almost literally, it found me. I was just browsing Malaprop’s, my local bookstore, and I felt this shiver when I saw this book! I read the cover and had to get it. With my iPad in hand, I bought the book and set into reading it. So here is my review .

The Peach Keeper is set in the modern day Blue Ridge Mountains of Western NC, in a little town called Wall of Water, that highlights the lives of two women that could not be any more different. Our two main characters in the story are Willa Jackson and Paxton Osgood. Willa, a free spirited woman, lived her early life as a joker/prankster that terrorized the Osgood family. Paxton, quite the opposite, lives to make lists and live a life organized outside of her parents iron fist.

Willa’s family, at one time, was the predominant family of Wall of Water who lived in a very extravagant home called The Madam. But, as the town started to die, the Jackson family started to lose money and were unable to pay the taxes owed on The Madam causing the family to eventually lose their home. Willa’s grandmother Georgie was pregnant with Willa’s father at the time of their departure, the father unknown @ this point. But with all good stories it does reveal the antagonist of the story as well as Willa’s grandfather.

Paxton is the quintessential southern belle, living her life through societies and groups. Though she surrounds herself with people she thinks of as her friends, she soon finds that she is quite the loner. Paxton has made the decision to purchase the worn down Madam and fix it up w/the dream of it being a Bed & Breakfast. She soon finds that there are buried secrets below the peach tree and uncovers a great friendship in Willa when the mysteries of The Madam push them together and force them to solve the secrets it has held so dear.

There is love of course, and some magic. And these are the weaker points of the story. Though these points each have a draw to them, the magic could have been a bigger point as it seems to be the theme of The Peach Keeper. The magic is mainly drawn into the story by the superstition that is ingrain into the main characters’ lives via their grandmothers. I personally enjoyed the beginning of the novel when the author wrote about the ghosts that haunted The Madam, but nothing was really brought forth on this except for a few tidbits here and there. I was really disappointed to tell you the truth. The second let down was the men of this story that made up the love story for the protagonists. First was Paxton’s brother Colin, who falls in love with Willa. Colin finds that he continues to think about Willa and her pranks, making him come back to the memory of her w/every relationship he has. Then there is Sebastian, Paxton’s love interest, who seems to be gay, acts gay and well he even kissed a boy (which he liked). But he’s not gay. It was just a way of finding himself (I thought this was kinda lame and didn’t like this part of the story at all). Then towards the end, a lightbulb goes off and he finds he loves Paxton. These two love interests just come up with one word for me, Lame! Yes, the author didn’t make the story revolve around knock down dirty sex, but once the act occurred between both parties, the stories fall apart.  The girls come together and loosen up some stray ends when it comes to their families, love interests and The Madam.

In the end, would I recommend The Peach Keeper , Of course! This book is very reminiscent of Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman.  If you enjoyed it you should enjoy The Peach Keeper.  But, as I always say, make up your own mind and read it!

~ML

Author:  Sarah Addison Allen
Title: The Peach Keeper, A Novel.
Genre: Fiction – General
Hardcover/Paperback:  288 pgs
ISBN: 978-0553807226

I have started this blog in an attempt to do reviews of things I enjoy on a real world basis. I will mainly focus on reviewing books that are in the genre of Urban Fantasies and Romance, and possibly some Sci-Fi, Historical Romance, etc. There will also be other reviews as well, of things that may interest me outside of the book world – more to come on that as well. Most of these books are read with a hand held device, be it on my iPad 2 or my Ebookwise E-reader.

The Ebookwise reader is a little old fashioned compared to the new and lighter versions available such as the Kindle, or the Nook, but it serves its purpose of being an Ebook reader and is a hell of a lot more rugged (I can’t tell you how many times it has been dropped at various levels of heights and onto different terrain material). It is black and white and I can convert most books available online into the format necessary to read. I can also purchase magazines, and newspapers should I chose to via its access to the internet (I have never done it on this reader and have never wanted too.) For that, I really prefer my iPad.

Anyways, I like to make my reviews interactive, be it through video’s, podcasts or just interactions with my readers. Those will come with time and my first review will be here in a bit. I’d love to hear your feedback and review requests.

Also, if you do subscribe to this blog via your iPad, there is an awesome app called Flipboard (it is free BTW) that you can purchase enabling you to receive updates on this blog via your feeds. I also use this on a daily basis for some of the blogs that I follow along with other things.

Have a great day and hope to catch you later. Take care!

~ML